Data Integration

Traditional approaches to the process of combining disparate data types into a cohesive, unified, organized view involve manual coding and scripting. The need for Real-Time Business Intelligence and the ability to leverage a wider variety of data sources is driving companies to embrace new ways to achieve Data Integration, including Data Virtualization, Master Data Management, and Integration Automation.

Data Integration Articles

IBM and Salesforce, a provider of CRM, are expanding their strategic partnership, bringing together IBM Cloud and Watson services with Salesforce Quip and Salesforce Service Cloud Einstein. The move will enable companies to connect with their customers and collaborate more effectively with deeper insights.

Dell Boomi, a provider of cloud integration and workflow automation software, says it plans to increase its investment in R&D by more than 50% as part of its mission to help enterprises connect everything and engage everywhere across any channel, device or platform.

CARTO, a provider of location intelligence technology, has announced a new partnership with Mapbox, a provider of a mapping and location data platform for developers. Through their partnership, CARTO and Mapbox say, customers will get access to the most modern technologies for location data services and intelligence.

MicroStrategy Incorporated, a provider of enterprise analytics and mobility software, unveiled the availability of new connectors to data discovery vendors at its annual user conference MicroStrategy World 2018. With this announcement, users can connect to Microsoft Power BI, Qlik Technologies, and Tableau Software and leverage MicroStrategy 10.

The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG), an independent, global, member-led organization that maximizes customers' investment in Oracle and partner solutions, has announced Christine Hipp as its 2018 president. An active member of the OAUG since 2004, Hipp has served on the OAUG's education, finance, governance, international, marketing, and meetings and conferences committees. She was elected in 2011 to the OAUG Board of Directors, where she served as the board secretary in 2013 and 2016 and president elect in 2017.

A new study conducted by Unisphere Research and sponsored by Quest Software examines the challenges being faced by database administrators (DBAs) and other data professionals who have long been the key guardians of companies' critical data assets. DBAs' primary responsibilities have been aimed at ensuring that data is safely, securely, accurately, and appropriately stored, managed, and maintained. However, over the last 10 years, major trends in technology have shaped—and reshaped—the ongoing role of the DBA in many organizations, according to the study, "DBAs Face New Challenges: Trends in Database Administration."

There are many things to consider when capacity planning for SQL Server. Storage and disk capacity are apparent, but when you want to right-size your database(s) for a new SQL implementation or migration, there is a lot more to think about than space.

Database administrators are typically swamped with simultaneous numerous jobs. They have to keep their database platforms up to date and working smoothly. That requires manual effort to perform certain tasks on a regular basis, sometimes daily or hourly.

Syncsort, is acquiring Trader's, a France-based global provider of high availability software solutions for multiple platforms, specializing in IBM i (AS/400, iSeries, System i). The acquisition extends Syncsort's leadership in Data Availability and market-leading IBM i High Availability product portfolio.

Oracle has entered into an agreement with Aconex Limited, a cloud-based solution that manages team collaboration for construction projects. The transaction is valued at approximately $1.2 billion, net of Aconex cash.

Frontline Systems has released XLMiner SDK V2018, a new version of its software development kit for data mining, text mining, forecasting, and predictive analytics. XLMiner SDK offers application developers working in C++, C#, Java, Python or R an API for creating applications that use predictive analytics.

Artificial intelligence has been described both as a radical force for good and an enabler of evil whose risks are not yet fully understood. But is it just a lot of hype or a transformative technology poised to impact our future? Here, seven IT execs weigh in on the AI debate and offer their predictions for the changes we may see in 2018.

As we enter a new year new trends will take their turn in the spotlight. This is no different for the big data landscape. We have come a long way since the term "big data" swept the business world off its feet as the next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. Hadoop, NoSQL, and Spark have become members of the enterprise IT landscape, data lakes have evolved as a real strategy and migration to the cloud has accelerated across service and deployment models.

Emerging technologies are outpacing data governance at a rapid clip. Specifically, the rate of growth and development of emerging technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning (ML) drastically exceeds the current speed and willingness of businesses to change their governance models to manage and protect their data and information assets. Unfortunately, the larger the delta becomes between the advancements in technology and the changes in governance, the greater the risks and losses for the business.

Collibra, a provider of enterprise data governance and catalog software, has closed $58 million in Series D financing. This round was led by existing Collibra investors ICONIQ Capital and Battery Ventures, with participation from early Collibra investors Dawn Capital, Index Ventures, and Newion Investments, bringing the total funding for Collibra to more than $133 million.

Organizations are moving towards self-service access to data and insights, to increase business agility and innovation. During this journey many are facing challenges that are slowing down how businesses operate along with introducing a small learning curve.

Modern data warehousing is not only being shaped by the need for businesses to deliver data faster to more users, but the need for a richer picture of their operations afforded by a greater variety of data for analysis. A growing number of organizations are modifying their data warehouse infrastructures with new technologies, from in-memory databases to Hadoop - and a flourishing market of cloud solutions.

As the use of cloud expands as a database platform and automated capabilities increase, there are new opportunities for DBAs to move beyond operations and emergency fire-fighting and instead get involved in more innovative, high-level tasks that bring additional value to their organizations. Experts weigh in on what's ahead.

A lot has been written about why IoT is going to be absolutely essential to your company. If you are convinced as to the why but wonder about the how, pay attention. Based on all the lessons learned from my engagements around the globe, I am going to tell you how. It basically comes down to three basic phases: preparation, the "real stuff," and embedding it in the organization.

Today's modern enterprise data warehouse (EDW), which has been in existence for more than 20 years, faces a growing set of challenges. The platform must incorporate data integration, quality, and governance effectively.

In a world where new technologies are often presented to the industry as rainbows and unicorns, there is always someone in a cubicle trying to figure out how to solve business problems and just make these great new technologies work together. The truth is that all of these technologies take time to learn, and it also takes time to identify the problems that can be solved by each of them.

With a new year comes new ideas on how to disrupt the big data industry. From tried and true methods to the introduction of new solutions, several experts are predicting a surge of a combination of both old and new solutions, along with the rise of different roles that will power enterprises through 2018.

The suddenness of the non-relational "breakout" created a lot of noise and confusion and—at least initially—an explosion of new database systems. However, the database landscape is settling down, and in the past few years, the biggest meta trend in database management has been a reduction in the number of leading vendors and consolidation of core technologies. Additionally, we're starting to see database as a service (DBaaS) offerings become increasingly credible alternatives to on-premise or do-it-yourself cloud database configuration.

You're a large organization headquartered in the U.S. Your clients and customers live mainly in the U.S. You have no intention to expand beyond the U.S. What could you possibly need to know about new data rules in the EU? Everything, it turns out.

Data lakes are often viewed as the ultimate silo breakers, integrating mountains of data frompoint solutions for ERP, CRM, enterprise data warehouse, cloud and on-premises applications.However, if the enterprise data lake is not leveraged appropriately, it often ends up being just adata dump or worse still a "data swamp."

Self-service data discovery has been the buzz word in the BI industry for the past 3 years and is touted as the solution to many problems. Yet, the BI industry has a dismal adoption rate of only 22%, which has plagued the industry for several years. In response to this grim number, we must look around for a solution in other sectors that provides self-service to millions of people without any IT support. In essence, we are looking for a self-service paradigm that can give us insights about how to solve the adoption challenge and learn from it.

The deadline looms on the horizon. On May 25, 2018, the European Union will enact some of the most stringent data privacy regulations the world has ever seen. These regulations will impact thousands of companies around the world, not only EU-based organizations but any company that collects or processes personal data on EU residents. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) recognizes the "fundamental right" of people to control what data is stored about them and how it is used.

MongoDB 3.6 was announced publically in November and should be in production by the time this article is posted. There are no shock features in this version, but it is an attractive release that should see rapid uptake.

Don't let the term "unstructured data" confuse you. Structure exists, somehow and somewhere, within unstructured source data. It is that subtle, possibly even encrypted, structure that contains the gems of knowledge that an enterprise seeks. Sometimes those gems only shine when extracted and combined with other little gems from other data sources.

Each year, Database Trends and Applications magazine highlights solutions that promise to help organizations derive greater benefit from their data, make better decisions, work more efficiently, achieve greater security, and address emerging challenges. A variety of MV companies have made the cut this year, including products from Entrinsik, Kore Technologies, Revelation Software, and Rocket Software.

There are two prevailing views when it comes to blockchain and enterprise data. One is that it's the most secure solution ever to come along. The other is that it is the fad of the moment that puts essential data in the unregulated wilds of the global internet.

Splice Machine has launched its Online Predictive Processing Platform (OLPP) for powering predictive applications. Using the Splice Machine OLPP platform, applications can now both "predict" by learning from the past as well as use those predictions to "act in the moment."

Transforming data into valuable information your enterprise can use sometimes is a daunting task. However, it doesn't have to be. In a recent DBTA webinar, Donald Soulsby, VP of architecture strategies at Sandhill Consultant, and Jeff Harris, technical services manager at Sandhill Consultant, discussed how to survive and thrive with data intelligence.

As 2017 winds down and a new year comes into view, Amit Zavery, senior VP, Product Development, Oracle Cloud Platform & Middleware, offered three predictions about cloud, AI, and automation for 2018—and beyond.

Data is a powerful tool, but it's all too often out of reach of the very people who need it most. That is changing as the model for consuming technology and the technology itself evolves to better support the needs of companies working at the speed of digital.

SAP is introducing new innovations in its enterprise information management (EIM) portfolio to help customers better manage and use their data for digital transformation, cloud, Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and data protection and privacy. These innovations help simplify data management and include broader support for diverse data landscapes and tighter integration across SAP solutions.

SAP is opening a new SAP Co-Innovation Lab at its North America headquarters in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, focusing on creating business applications for emerging technologies. SAP Co-Innovation Lab locations provide infrastructure and space for SAP and its partners and customers to co-innovate new solutions to the most pressing challenges organizations face in the digital economy.

SAP is launching the SAP SuccessFactors People Central Hub solution, introducing a new way for customers to simplify and speed the use of cloud-based people and organizational data across their businesses. The need for people and organizational data across the enterprise is vital, but integrating this data from disparate systems is complex and expensive. SAP SuccessFactors People Central Hub helps solve this by consolidating people and organizational data from legacy systems into a central, cloud-based hub where it's then integrated and available for use with SAP enterprise applications, such as SAP S/4HANA.

Magnitude Software has completed the acquisition of Innowera, a global software provider that enables users to more efficiently manage SAP processes and workflows for productivity and data management. This acquisition expands Magnitude's portfolio of solutions in the SAP marketplace, provides access to additional target users in the office of finance, and complements key solutions, including Magnitude SourceConnect for SAP, Magnitude RapidDecision, and Magnitude Connectivity solutions.

In the past, user groups were the place where you would meet people interested in the same thing you were. Vendors worked with the user groups to communicate new releases, and gather feedback on beta testing and leveraged them as a source for new features. The user group had a library of information, presentations, events, and ways to interact with other users and vendors. Now, with social tools, including Facebook, Slack, and LinkedIn, and powerful search engines such as Google and Bing, the question is: Are user groups still needed? They are, and here is why.

Oracle has announced general availability of the newest release of its flagship core banking application, Oracle FLEXCUBE V14. With FLEXCUBE V14, banks now have the choice of either deploying a pre-configured offering for a comprehensive solution or updating one line of business at a time.

IBM announced its next-generation Power Systems Servers, incorporating its newly designed POWER9 processor. Built specifically for compute-intensive AI workloads, the new POWER9 systems are capable of improving the training times of deep learning frameworks, enabling enterprises to build more accurate AI applications, faster.